A hearing aid is a hearing device for aiding an individual in regard to his or her hearing. It may be a hearing prosthesis for compensating a hearing loss, namely a conventional acoustic hearing aid amplifying sound or a cochlear implant electrically stimulating nerve cells or a bone conduction hearing aid. It may also be a hearing protection device which helps individuals to hear without damage in noisy environments. It may also be a tinnitus treatment device. The individual may be an adult, but it may also be an infant or child.
Commercially available electrical hearing aids include a battery compartment for holding a battery. The battery compartment for hearing aids may be constructed in various ways. One common way is to construct the battery compartment as a drawer or a holder, in which the battery is placed, upon which the drawer is pushed around a pivot point from an open position into a closed position in the housing. In this way, the housing serves to close the battery compartment. Typically the holder has a pivot point about which the holder rotates while being pushed into the housing. Retaining means may be provided to hold the battery compartment in the closed position, and possibly in an intermediate position where the power supply to the hearing aid is interrupted but the battery is not accessible for removal.
The battery compartment generally requires the hearing aid users such as elderly people to perform the delicate manipulations of applying pivoting force on the drawer, for example to detach the battery compartment. In order to prevent the battery compartment from being opened accidently, and the battery thus falling out, the battery compartment is locked in the housing by a locking mechanism. For example, if the user is an infant, it may be important to lock the battery compartment such that the battery cannot be removed and possibly swallowed. Such hearing aid devices may be referred to as childproof, tamperproof.
The disclosure provides an alternative solution to the above-described situation by offering a locking mechanism between the first functional unit and the second functional unit of the hearing aid such that coupling of the first functional unit and the second functional unit is provided with immovable locking using the locking mechanism.